Parker Dam State Park

Parker Dam State Park is a 968-acre Pennsylvania state park in Huston Township, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is surrounded by Moshannon State Forest. Parker Dam State park is 17 miles north of Clearfield on Pennsylvania Route 153 just off exit 111 of Interstate 80. The park was constructed during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. They built many of the facilities that are in use today at Parker Dam State Park.

The park takes its name from William Parker, who leased lumbering rights from John Otto. Parker built a splash dam on Laurel Run at the site of the present lake. Lumbering began as early as 1794 in Clearfield County, harvesting the white pine and hemlock which covered the mountainsides. The tall white pines fetched a high price in Baltimore for use as masts. Logs were to Baltimore by way of the Susquehanna River. Logging picked up in force during the 1850s when the Susquehanna Boom was built across the West Branch Susquehanna River at Williamsport. The boom stopped the floating logs for sorting and cutting at the sawmills. Later, railroads and roads were built by the lumber companies to harvest and distribute the timber. The railroads replaced the floating of the logs down the creeks and into the West Branch. The lumber boom era was not to last, and soon all the trees were gone. Once the trees disappeared, the people were soon to follow. The lumbermen left behind a barren landscape that was devastated by erosion, flooding and wildfires for twenty years. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought the thousands of acres of deforested and burned land. The state began the massive project of reforesting the land. The young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps led the reforestation effort. They also built miles of road, many bridges, cleared streams and built the facilities at Parker Dam State Park.

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